San Pedro trails named for trailblazer Ray Patricio

The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks renamed San Pedro's Peck Park Canyon trails in Hernandez Ranch area in honor of Ray Patricio, a former Park Advisory Board member and community activist. Councilman Joe Buscaino, center, walks up the trail with a sign to be placed at the trailhead. Photo by Robert Casillas / DAILY BREEZE

The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks renamed San Pedro's Peck Park Canyon trails in Hernandez Ranch area in honor of Ray Patricio, a former Park Advisory Board member and community activist. Jim Patricio tells tales about his father Ray. Photo by Robert Casillas / DAILY BREEZE

Growing up in the 1920s and ’30s, Ray Patricio roamed the wild canyons and sprawling, open hillsides that covered northwest San Pedro. His rural backyard companions included the horses and herds of grazing livestock kept by the nearby dairy farms.

Nowadays, Western Avenue cuts across much of that land, bringing shopping centers, homes, daily traffic jams and a cemetery to replace the grazing cows and chapparal-covered terrain.

But wander a bit east of Peck Park’s manicured baseball diamonds and much of Patricio’s beloved canyon remains, a reminder of the rural landscape that once characterized the port town.

On Thursday, Los Angeles city officials joined his friends and family to officially name a new system of hiking trails that opened in May 2011 in honor of the late Patricio, who lived most of his life in a house overlooking the canyon and campaigned tirelessly for the land’s preservation.

“What a great way to honor a terrific man,” said Diana Nave, past president of the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council, who was among the speakers at the outdoor ceremony. “Trails named for a trailblazer. It just makes all the sense in the world.”

The neighborhood council, on which Patricio served before his death in August 2012 at the age of 89, wanted to name the network of trails after him when the $4.8 million project was nearing completion.

But Patricio would have none of it.

“He was adamant about not having them named after him, so we dropped our request,” she said. “Then, on the day that the improvements were dedicated, he was so pleased with them that he leaned over to me and said, ‘I wish I’d let you do it.’ ”

A big man with a booming laugh, Patricio never tired of singing the canyon’s praises.

On May 7, 2011, at the opening day ceremony for the trails, he told the crowd: “To hell with computers. Come down to nature.”

Patricio’s son, Jim, choked up after thanking the city for the honor.

“My dad would be very honored and very pleased,” he said.

On Thursday, a large sign — Ray Patricio Memorial Trails at Peck Park — was hung, prompting a cheer of “Hats off to Ray!” at the corner of Upland Avenue and Dunn Street, where the area known as Hernandez Ranch borders the canyon. Other signs will be installed along the trails in what is a 3-mile-long ravine.

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“Over the next couple of months you’ll notice Ray’s name popping up” along the trails, said Los Angeles Councilman Joe Buscaino.

His longtime friend and neighbor would have been pleased with the hoopla, John Winkler said.

“Ray was a great guy; he was such an inspiration and part of San Pedro,” Winkler said. “He’s like a legend.”

A longshoreman and school coach before retiring, Patricio convinced the Northwest San Pedro Neighborhood Council in its early years to take on the canyon project on as a priority, Nave said. He also served on the Peck Park Advisory Board.

And while city Recreation and Parks officials had kind words for him Thursday, they often were in Patricio’s cross hairs as he pushed the bureaucracy for improvements.

“They didn’t exactly see eye to eye all the time,” said Buscaino, who carried the dedication motion to the full City Council for approval. “But it was a special kind of partnership.”

When Patricio’s mission to save the canyon began, the overgrown and neglected ravine had fallen prey to abandoned furniture, cars and homeless encampments.

Patricio, who loved kids and animals, had long dreamed of a day when the canyon again would be a safe environment for children to explore nature.

Among his most cherished projects was bringing in a herd of goats to graze in Peck Park Canyon, a pilot program that lasted only two years before it was quashed, prompting no shortage of frustrated complaints from Patricio.

When he heard that the trail dedication to Patricio had been scheduled, Recreation and Parks supervisor Juan Benitez asked to speak.

“Ray was one of the first community members I met when I started working in this area for Recreation and Parks,” he said.

Patricio’s calls always started with business — but typically ended “with a story,” Benitez said.

“He told me when he was a boy that Western was nothing more than a cattle road used by the dairy farms on the hill,” Benitez said

Patricio’s granddaughter, Lisa DeLeon of San Pedro, also grew up in the canyon and said she looks forward to showing the new signs to her young children.

“I’m very proud of my grandad,” she said. “That (canyon) was also my backyard. I was one of the lucky ones.”

The improvements and signs bearing his name “are like his legacy,” said Patricio’s daughter, Franny Patricio of Santa Cruz.